Comment by vanilla-almond | Hacker News Reader

Comment by vanilla-almond | Hacker News Reader

I have recently started drinking almond milk. It does feel like a rip-off because a 1 litre carton of almond milk is approximately 97% water, 2% almonds, 1% thickeners.

Companies charge what they think the market will pay and in this case, consumers (like me!) are willing to pay for almond milk even when it costs more than fresh dairy milk.

But make up your own mind: is almond milk a rip-off given the ingredients? Or a perfectly fine product? Here are the ingredients for two different unsweentened almond milk brands:

- Alpro Almond Milk - 1 litre (Alpro is a popular European brand)

Water, Almonds (2.3%), Calcium (Tri-Calcium Phosphate), Sea Salt, Stabilisers (Locust Bean Gum, Gellan Gum), Emulsifier (Lecithins (Sunflower)), Vitamins (B2, B12, E, D2)

- Asda Almond Milk - 1 litre (UK supermarket own brand)

Water, Almonds (2%), Emulsifier (Sunflower Lecithins), Calcium Phosphate, Stabilisers (Gellan Gum, Carboxy Methyl Cellulose, Xanthan Gum), Salt, Potassium Iodide, Vitamins (B12, D2, B2)

Prices:

- Alpro: £1.80 ($2.50, 2.10€)

- Asda: £0.85 ($1.15, 1.00€)

I have noticed the same problems with the ingredients.

Some time ago I have bought samples of 6 or 7 brands of various kinds of vegetable milks and I have tested the results of making vanilla cream and cocoa cream when the cow milk is substituted with cashew milk, almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk and so on.

The creams with vegetable milk were acceptable, but I also did not like the list of ingredients found in all brands, without exception.

There is no doubt that instead of buying commercial vegetable milk it is far more healthy to just buy almonds, cashew nuts etc. and make milk yourself using just water, whenever you need it.

The problem is that you need to have a suitable blender and much more importantly you have to spend extra time with this activity instead of just buying the milk.

It is likely that the commercial vegetable milk needs stabilizers and emulsifiers to have a reasonable shelf life.

If you make yourself vegetable milk and consume it immediately, there is no need for those.

Alpro is part of Danone. I generally avoid their products because of the amount of thickeners, emulsifiers, sugars etc. they add.

Emulsifiers lead to a more stable drink that does not coagulate when poured into coffee. Thickeners and sugar probably let them get away with lower almond content.

There are much better options, but I can't tell you where to find them in the UK. For instance, this almond milk is made of only water, almonds (7%) and sea salt: https://www.alnatura.de/de-de/produkte/alle-produkte/milch-u...

With 70g of almonds per liter for EUR 2.69 it's about twice as expensive as unprocessed almonds from the same brand.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com